This invention relates to an information processing technology available for musical instruments and, more particularly, to an information processing system associated with an object-oriented user interface for musicians and a musical instrument equipped with the information processing system.
A graphical user interface is popular to computer users, and permits the users to manage a large amount of data information as well as various kinds of computer programs. The graphical user interface produces visual images called xe2x80x9ciconsxe2x80x9d on a display screen. When the user starts a computer program or accesses a data file, he or she moves a pointer to an icon representative of the computer program or a data file by sliding a mouse, and clicks the mouse. Then, the computer program starts to run on the personal computer system, or the data file is open. Thus, the user easily manipulates the personal computer system through the graphic user interface.
There are various tools with which the computer user customizes a new picture. The user designs a new picture and visual images by means of the tools, and adds the new picture to the library.
A large number of visual images are usually required for the communication between the user and the personal computer system. The visual images are grouped into plural pictures, and appropriate category icons are respectively assigned to the pictures. The user firstly selects one of the pictures by clicking the category icon assigned thereto. Otherwise, a keyboard may be used for the selection. Then, the data processing unit produces the selected picture on the screen. Next, the user selects one of the visual images on the picture by manipulating the mouse so as to input a piece of data information or give an instruction to the data processing unit. Thus, the user stepwise accesses the objective visual image by manipulating the mouse or the keyboard. In case where the user has customized a new picture, the new picture is also accessible through the manipulation of the mouse or the keyboard.
However, someone such as a physically handicapped person feels it difficult to manipulate the mouse or the keyboard. A voice recognition technology is helpful for the physically handicapped person. The voice recognition technology is introduced into the personal computer system, and offers a man-machine interface to the physically handicapped person.
Another application of the voice recognition technology is an automatic answer network system. The automatic answer network system is a combination of a mainframe computer system and a telephone network. A lot of telephone subscribers concurrently access the database through the telephone network, and the mainframe computer answers the users requests. While a person is speaking through telephone, he or she needs to hold the receiver by hand. This means that he or she feels it difficult to manipulate the keyboard. The mainframe computer has the man-machine interface realized through the voice recognition and response technologies, and specifies the piece of the data information requested by each subscriber. Thus, the voice recognition technology is fairly popular to the computer user.
A speaker recognition is yet another application field of the voice recognition technology. When the speaker pronounces a word or words, the speaker recognition system extracts a characteristic pattern from his or her pronunciation, and identifies the speaker with one of the registered persons. The speaker recognition technology is applied to an electronic key for security, telephone banking, a remote access to a computer system.
Several kinds of musical instrument have been computerized. An electric keyboard is a typical example of the computerized musical instrument. A data processing system is incorporated in the electric keyboard together with key switches and a tone generator. The data processing system has a manipulating board, and a player gives instructions to the data processing system through the manipulating board before his or her performance. The data processor responds to the instructions for changing properties of the electronic tones such as, for example, a timbre and volume. While the player is fingering on the keyboard, the personal computer system processes pieces of music data information representative of the performance, and instructs the tone generator to produce the electronic tones. Another personal computer system serves as a tutor for a beginner, and assists the beginner in a practice of fingering. Thus, the personal computer system offers various kinds of service to musicians.
In these circumstances, the graphic user interface makes the musicians communicate with the personal computer system easily. FIG. 1 shows a picture produced on a screen of a display unit incorporated in the prior art personal computer system for musicians. Various visual images are arranged in the picture. A visual image C1 is representative of ten keys, and another visual image C2 has an image of an indicator. Yet another visual image C3 is like a button switch. The visual images serve as if real ten keys and real button switches are provided on the screen. When the user clicks the visual images, numerals are input to the data processing unit, and instructions are given to the data processing unit. The needle of the indicator is indicative of the current value of a physical quantity such as, for example, the volume of tones to be generated. The personal computer system notifies the current status to the user through the indicators.
A prior art electronic musical instrument with a built-in computer system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,078. The computer system has a flat screen display embedded in a music stand. A touch control overlay is provided on the flat screen display. The user gives controllable parameters through the touch control overlay. In this instance, the touch control overlay serves as the man-machine interface.
The built-in computer systems already known are manipulated by the players or musicians before their performance. Most musicians are not physically handicapped, and do not find the manipulating panel and the touch control overlay inconvenient. For this reason, the user gives instructions and music parameters through the interface to be manipulated by his or her hand.
Although a computerized keyboard musical instrument is equipped with a microphone, it is limited to a man-machine interface for recording. An example of the computerized keyboard musical instrument equipped with a microphone is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,997. The prior art computerized keyboard musical instrument has a multimedia audio subsystem, and the microphone forms a part of the multimedia audio subsystem. The user inputs his or her voice through the microphone into the multimedia audio subsystem. The inventors describe the reason why the user uses the microphone as xe2x80x9cthe microphone 84 can be connected to the system for recording, karaoke and other musical voice input applicationsxe2x80x9d (see column 9, lines 52 to 54). The prior art computerized keyboard musical instrument is equipped with a graphical user interface, and the controllable parameters are adjusted through the graphic user interface.
The manipulating panel and the graphical user interface are popular in the field of computerized musical instruments, and the user satisfies the manipulating panel and the graphic user interface. However, while the musician is playing a tune with the computerized keyboard musical instrument, he or she has to continue the fingering. As described hereinbefore, the graphic user interface has a large number of visual images, and it is impossible to produce all the visual images on the screen concurrently. This means that the user accesses the target visual image by repeating the manipulation on the screen. However, it is difficult to repeat the manipulation on the graphic user interface during the performance. This means that the musician can not change the instruction and/or parameters after starting the performance.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a data processing system, which has a graphic user interface manipulative by a user who has his or her hands full.
It is another important object of the present invention to provide a musical instrument, which is equipped with the data processing system.
To accomplish the object, the present invention proposes to combine a picture with a speaker through a voice recognition system.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system comprising a memory having plural addressable locations where identification codes respectively assigned to plural users and plural pieces of visual data information representative of first pictures respectively owned by the plural users are stored, a voice-to-signal converter converting a pronunciation of a speaker to a first electric signal, a voice recognition engine connected to the voice-to-signal converter, responsive to the first electric signal so as to identify the speaker with one of the plural users and producing a second electric signal representative of the aforesaid one of the plural users, a visual display unit responsive to a third electric signal for selectively producing the first pictures, and a graphical user interface connected to the voice recognition engine, the memory and the visual display unit, responsive to the second electric signal so as to produce a fourth electric signal representative of the identification code assigned to the aforesaid one of the plural users and supplying the fourth electric signal to the memory for transferring the third electric signal representative of the first picture owned by the aforesaid one of the plural users to the visual display unit.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system comprising a memory having at least one addressable location where an identification code assigned to a user and a piece of visual data information representative of a certain picture customized by the plural user are stored, a voice-to-signal converter converting a pronunciation of a speaker to a first electric signal, a voice recognition engine connected to the voice-to-signal converter and responsive to the first electric signal so as to produce a second electric signal representative of the user when the speaker is identified with the user, a visual display unit responsive to a third electric signal for selectively producing pictures, and a graphical user interface connected to the voice recognition engine, the memory and the visual display unit, responsive to the second electric signal so as to produce a fourth electric signal representative of the identification code assigned to the user and supplying the fourth electric signal to the memory for transferring the third electric signal representative of the certain picture to the visual display unit.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing system used for a musical instrument for assisting a player in selecting at least one attribute of tones to be generated, and the information processing system comprises a memory having plural addressable locations where identification codes respectively assigned to plural users and plural pieces of visual data information representative of first pictures respectively owned by the plural users are stored, each of the first pictures including at least one visual image indicating the current state of the at least one attribute, a voice-to-signal converter converting a pronunciation of the player to a first electric signal, a voice recognition engine connected to the voice-to-signal converter, responsive to the first electric signal so as to identify the player with one of the plural users and producing a second electric signal representative of the aforesaid one of the plural users, a visual display unit responsive to a third electric signal for selectively producing the first pictures and a graphical user interface connected to the voice recognition engine, the memory and the visual display unit, responsive to the second electric signal so as to produce a fourth electric signal representative of the identification code assigned to the aforesaid one of the plural users and supplying the fourth electric signal to the memory for transferring the third electric signal representative of the first picture owned by the aforesaid one of the plural users to the visual display unit.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical instrument for producing tones, and the musical instrument comprises plural manipulators for specifying notes of a scale, a tone generating system responsive to fingering on the plural manipulators for generating tones with the notes specified through the fingering and an information processing system connected to the tone generating system and including a memory having plural addressable locations where identification codes respectively assigned to plural users and plural pieces of visual data information representative of first pictures respectively owned by the plural users are stored, each of the first pictures including at least one visual image indicating the current state of the at least one attribute of the tones, a voice-to-signal converter converting a pronunciation of the player to a first electric signal, a voice recognition engine connected to the voice-to-signal converter, responsive to the first electric signal so as to identify the player with one of the plural users and producing a second electric signal representative of the aforesaid one of the plural users, a visual display unit responsive to a third electric signal for selectively producing the first pictures and a graphical user interface connected to the voice recognition engine, the memory and the visual display unit, responsive to the second electric signal so as to produce a fourth electric signal representative of the identification code assigned to the aforesaid one of the plural users and supplying the fourth electric signal to the memory for transferring the third electric signal representative of the first picture owned by the aforesaid one of the plural users to the visual display unit.